There is a massive disconnect between what business executives day and do when it comes to creating and managing the customer experience.

While 80% of executives say they want to use customer experience management (CXM) as a form of differentiation in 2010, only 11% would call their CXM approach “very disciplined”.

For example, most companies (44%) acknowledge that high-profile negative customer experiences have at some time compromised their brand, yet only 29% have high ability to handle and resolve customer complaints.

It is not that they don’t get it. On the contrary, experienced CEOs universally get the importance and the need for optimising customer experience. All the CEOs/ GMs/ MDs I know/ have met understand and appreciate the importance of creating and managing the customer value chain. (Over a lifetime that is a significant sample across 3 continents.)

The reasons for not doing anything about it are:

Reason #1: The view from the executive suite is somewhat distorted.

Only 12% of customers judge specific leading suppliers as extremely customer-centric (CMO Council Customer Affinity study), while 56% of those same suppliers think of themselves as extremely customer-centric.

That is, executives THINK they are doing something about but the customers don’t agree.

Reason #2: In the absence of a viable action plan, they persevere with status quo.

The reasons conjured up above are a matter of opinion. I would really like to elicit YOUR view on this question. Instead of comments, please write your opinion HERE – and I will consolidate and give feedback next week with the result. (Thank you.)

In conclusion:

The big picture questions for all executives (that you should resolve in your organisation are:

Are these two reasons mentioned above legitimate reasons NOT to make the creation and delivery of your customer value proposition the major priority?

If these reasons do NOT apply to you, are you being honest with yourself and your stakeholders about the strategic business priorities?